Owner says fire at vacant Bay City house was arson, fire officials continuing their investigation

The insurance adjuster said it was clearly set by someone, it wasn’t a spontaneous fire. - Steve Ingersoll

The house at 616 N. Grant St. on Jan. 11, the day after a fire heavily damaged the structure.MLive File Photo

BAY CITY, MI — In the eyes of its owner, a recent fire at a vacant house on Bay City's East Side was the work of an arsonist, but despite the depredation, he plans to move forward with making the structure a home again.

Ingersoll, who identified himself as the property's owner, added that the blaze gutted the house, but said it’s still a fine building with the best architecture and build quality on the street. He added it’s not a total loss and hopes to rebuild it back to habitable condition wherein teachers from his charter school Bay City Academy can reside.

Karey Prieur

Bay City Fire Chief Karey Prieur, however, disagrees with the condition of the building, saying his investigators consider it a total loss. He added that the cost of the damage is estimated at $16,600, though there were no contents. According to Bay County property records, the home has a cash value of $29,000.

Prieur also said he could neither confirm nor deny that the fire was an arson.

“As far as our end goes, it’s still an open investigation,” he said.

Firefighters were dispatched to the scene at 5:05 p.m. on Jan. 10 and the first unit arrived at 5:09, Prieur said. The scene was cleared at 8:56 p.m.

“We sent our four Bay City fire stations, and we were assisted with mutual aid from the Essexville Public Safety Department and the Portsmouth Township Fire Department,” Prieur said, adding that some off-duty firefighters were called in as well as part-time, paid on-call staff.

The fire was contained to the upper stories of the structure, Prieur said.

“Upon our arrival, the first unit at the scene reported smoke from the eves on the third floor and fire visible on the second,” he said.

The house is one of three in the 600 block of Grant Street owned by a "Grant Street LLC" entity, the others being at 606 and 620, according to Bay County property records.

County records show a Rockford address for 606 Grant Street LLC and a Traverse City address for 620 Grant Street LLC.

Steven J. Ingersoll
Steve Ingersoll

Ingersoll in April 2011 transferred ownership of all three properties to Grant Street LLC for zero dollars.

According to property records, Ingersoll purchased the property at 616 Grant St. for $7,000 on Oct. 8, 2009, from Main Street Bank.

He purchased the property at 606 Grant St. for $8,000 on Sept. 23, 2009, from Bank of America. That property has a cash value of roughly $13,800, according to property records. He bought the property at 620 Grant St. for $22,000 on March 19, 2009 from Lindsey Spurlock. It has a cash value of roughly $26,000 property records show.

In 2013, Bay County issued delinquent tax notices for the 2012 tax year that included unpaid taxes of $981.17 on the 620 Grant St. property and $476.71 on the 606 Grant St. property.

Ingersoll, an eye doctor and entrepreneur who splits his time living in Traverse City and Bay City, has been active in recent years purchasing properties he hopes to fix up through his Front Porch Renaissance movement. His Bay City Academy has three locations in Bay City.